Ikea’s New Ad Tries to Fix Relationships It Might Have Broken Up

Amy Poelher once quipped that Ikea is the Swedish word for “argument.”

That’s because a trip to one of the Netherlands-based furniture retailer’s stores has been known to test relationships. The company even has a special name for products that are difficult to assemble: “Sometimes,” Allan Dickner, Ikea’s deputy manager of packaging, told Fortune in 2015, “we call it a ‘husband killer.’”

But instead of spurring a couple’s therapy session, Ikea now wants its products to help solve its customer’s relationship problems—romantic and familial—in a new ad campaign called “Retail Therapy.” Created by ad agency Åkestam Holst, the campaign renames Ikea products after commonly searched relationship problems in Sweden. The campaign launched a few weeks ago. Here’s one of the new ads.

Need to impress someone? Ikea’s got a bookcase for that. Raised a son that “plays too much computer games”? The retailer suggests scissors. Got a snorer on your bed? Daybed.

“So whether it’s a snoring husband, a never ending gaming son or any other relationship problem you have, Ikea can come to the rescue,” the agency wrote on Ads of the World. “Or at least put a smile on your face, while you keep googling for an answer.”

IKEA Just Made a $6 Billion Deal to Overhaul Its Business

The IKEA Group said on Wednesday it had sold key subsidiaries for 5.2 billion euros ($5.58 billion) as part of an overhaul to help the furniture retailer react to new competition and shifts in consumer preferences away from its vast out-of-town stores.

The IKEA Group, which operates most IKEA stores, sold subsidiaries that manage the group’s supply chain and design, purchase and manufacture all IKEA furniture to Inter IKEA Holding BV, a company based in Delft in the Netherlands, which owns the IKEA brand.

The transaction, initiated by Inter IKEA, helped to boost pre-tax profits by 23% to 5.4 billion euros at IKEA Group, which has its headquarters in Leiden in the Netherlands.

Since September 1, Inter IKEA has controlled the development of the IKEA range and supply chain. This relegates IKEA Group to being a pure retailer, operating under a franchise agreement with Inter IKEA.

Inter IKEA CEO Torbjorn Loof said Inter IKEA felt it was necessary to take full control of developing the IKEA business to respond to increased demands from customers to shop in city center stores, buy online and to use collection points.

“The concept and the existing franchise system was made up in the beginning of the 1980s. It was another era,” he told Reuters. “The main aim is to make sure that we can grow and expand and be relevant to our customers,” he said.

Inter IKEA announced its decision to exercise its rights to take back control of the design and other activities from IKEA Group last year but the price of this transaction was revealed for the first time on Wednesday when the two groups presented their earnings to August 31.

The IKEA Group is owned by a Dutch Foundation while Inter IKEA is owned by a Liechtenstein foundation. The split of responsibilities aims to create a tension that spurs growth, Inter IKEA executives say.

The overall structure, which is also tax efficient, was created by founder Ingvar Kamprad, a Swede, almost 40 years ago to allow IKEA preserve its independence in perpetuity. Profits of both groups are retained in the companies or foundations to fund the expansion of the IKEA concept.

Sales from IKEA stores worldwide hit 36.4 billion euros last year, Inter IKEA said in its annual summary. IKEA Group accounted for 34.2 billion euros of this total.

IKEA Group Chief Executive Peter Agnefjall said the transfer of key functions and 26,000 staff, would weigh on his company’s future profits, but would be offset by improvements in IKEA Group’s contracts with Inter IKEA.

“(We) obtained important strategic benefits, that will strengthen our position going forward. So all in all, we’re happy with the transaction,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Faster Moving

Analysts said that lack of detail around the deal—which is one of the largest retail transactions in the world this year—meant that it was hard to assess whether the price paid was high or low but that the new split of functions should be good for the overall franchise.

“It’s going to be a good move for them, because one of the big problems is that they have been quite slow to adapt to customers,” Matt Walton, Analyst at Verdict Retail

Inter IKEA CEO Loof said as part of the restructuring IKEA Group received rights to open new channels for selling IKEA products, including in new city-center stores and via urban collection and order points. Also, the time scale of IKEA Group’s franchise contracts were amended to allow for the long-term investments needed to overhaul IKEA’s operating model.

He said certain areas of the product line, such as living room furniture, needed to be improved.

Inter IKEA said it had pre-tax profits of 329 million euros in the eight months to the end of August. The company receives a franchise fee of 3% of turnover at all IKEA stores. It had just 1,300 employees two years ago.

It said profits would increase in the coming financial year due to the acquisition of the subsidiaries which operate design studios, logistics hubs and 43 factories around the world. The acquisition was funded by borrowing and funds from its parent.

The deal boosted IKEA Group’s cash pile to 23.2 billion from 16.7 billion at the end of August 2015. Agnefjall said the sale proceeds would be used for investments, boosting the company’s cash buffer and to resume paying a dividend, which would be 840 million euros for 2016, compared to 600 million euros for 2014.

Agnefjall said he hoped that Inter IKEA would continue to select IKEA Group, technically a company called Ingka Holding, to open IKEA stores in new markets.

IKEA Group increased its sales by more than 7% last year, helped by new store openings and increased online sales. Combined, the other 12 franchisees boosted sales at their stores by 22%, Inter IKEA’s results show.

These Are the U.S. Companies With the Most Solar Power

Target is now the U.S. company that produces the most solar power at its facilities, beating out Walmart for the first time, according to a new report looking at corporate solar power usage in the United States.

Other companies with large installations of onsite solar panels include Prologis, Apple, Costco, Kohl’s, and IKEA, says a report released on Wednesday by the solar group the Solar Energy Industries Association.

The report, which tracks the largest onsite solar systems in the U.S., demonstrates how companies—from retailers to tech companies—are increasing turning to the sun to power buildings as the cost of solar panels has declined dramatically in recent years. But the report does not look at the amount of solar power that a company could buy from an offsite facility.

For more on the Tesla/SolarCity deal watch our video.

This year was a big one for the solar industry, and almost 14 gigawatts worth of solar power installations are expected to be installed across the U.S. by the end of 2016. Fourteen gigawatts is enough solar energy to power 2.3 million homes, and is the equivalent of about 14 large natural gas or coal plants.

Over 70% of that is supposed to come from large sprawling solar panel farms (called “utility-scale solar”) built in remote regions, and selling power to utilities. In contrast, many of the corporate solar farms are installed on building rooftops.

These corporate solar installations tend to have slightly higher prices than the large utility-scale solar systems, and this sector hasn’t grown as quickly as utility-scale solar or solar panels for homes. But companies are still buying up solar panels in an effort to lower their energy bills, and to be more environmental.

Target TGT installed almost 70 megawatts of solar panels in 2016 at its facilities. The company now has 147 megawatts of solar panels operating at 300 separate installations. Walmart WMT has 145 megawatts of solar panels at 364 different locations. The report says that every week 2% of the U.S. population visits a solar-powered Walmart.

Other smaller retailers with less real estate have maxed out, nearly or completely, their solar panel space. IKEA, for example, has installed solar panels at 90% of its facilities.

Ikea’s Belated Embrace of Online Shopping Is Finally Paying Off

Ikea reported record annual sales on Tuesday, including a 30% leap in online revenues after the Swedish budget furniture retailer belatedly embraced e-commerce.

For years, Ikea has relied on shoppers to travel to its huge out-of-town stores and carry goods home themselves.

But it is investing in online shopping and now also experimenting with pick-up points and smaller shops, aiming to head off competition from online retailers such as Amazonamzn and home24, as well as more traditional rivals including Britain’s Argos and France’s Conforama.

Ikea, which owns most Ikea stores worldwide, said sales in the 12 months through August rose 7% from the year before to 34.2 billion euros ($38.4 billion). Comparable store sales were up 5%.

Ikea currently has 340 stores in 28 countries with e-commerce operations in 14 of them. More online markets could be added this year, Agnefjall said, though the focus was currently on the imminent roll-out and testing in Britain of a new online platform aimed eventually at all markets.

Ikea, known mostly for its self-assembly furniture, is also experimenting with smaller outlets that are mainly pick-up and order points, with 22 now open compared with three a year ago.

“This is part of making Ikea more accessible and making it easier for online shoppers to pick stuff up near to where they live,” Agnefjall said. “We see these 22 as tests to see which formats and locations work best.

Markets

Ikea Group, which is targeting 50 billion euros in sales for 2020 and does most of its business in Europe, sees good growth opportunities in emerging markets, and plans to enter India in late 2017.

It opened 19 new stores in 2015/16.

Agnefjall said Germany remained the company’s single biggest market, generating 4.75 billion euros in sales, although the United States nearly caught up.

In China, sales were still up by a double-digit percentage, helped by the opening of three new stores. Agnefjall said that, unlike many other retailers in China, Ikea was not seeing a slowdown in demand and was planning to step up the pace of expansion in the country over the coming years.

He added growth was also strong in some eastern European countries, with Poland overtaking China as the company’s fastest-growing market.

Ikea is a franchisee of brand owner Inter Ikea Group. Besides the stores, it owns 41 indoor shopping malls and 25 outdoor retail spaces, the latter of which are up for sale.

Ikea Group and Inter Ikea Group are controlled by Netherlands and Liechtenstein-based foundations.

Ikea’s New Restaurant Asks You to Build Your Own Meals

The option of dining at Ikea is nothing new, but now the Scandinavian home decor retailer is combining the culinary aspect of one of its stores with its famous do-it-yourself ethos.

Ikea announced this week it will open a pop-up restaurant in the company’s Shoreditch, London location where diners will build their own meals in the sense that they’ll serve as the chef, preparing food for their group of friends and family. Called “The Dining Club,” Ikea’s new experimental restaurant will open for two weeks in mid-September and feature a variety of available cooking sessions—for brunch, lunch, or dinner—where different trained head chefs will supervise customers’ preparation of a meal for a group of up to 20 people.

According to Ikea’s U.K. website, The Dining Club is meant to “celebrate the joys of cooking together.” In the press release, the company said: “With people spending less time cooking and eating together in the U.K., Ikea are giving the foodies, wannabe-cooks, kitchen-novices and fine-diners the chance to express themselves and impress their friends in a restaurant where they will have their very own sous chef and maître de.”

The pop-up restaurant, which will be open from Sept. 10 to Sept. 25, features an Ikea cafe “serving Swedish delicacies” in addition to the cooking workshops, which are in limited supply and require potential DIY chefs to apply for the chance to participate online. What’s more, if you’re able to snag one of the cooking sessions, the company said in its press release that the experience is completely free, including food, alcohol, and a wait staff.

Ikea is no stranger to innovation when it comes to dining options, which include packaged foods sold in its stores along with in-store bistros and restaurants selling a range of cuisines. Last year, Ikea announced that it was expanding its menu to include chicken and veggie versions of its famous Swedish meatballs—of which Ikea sells a billion balls a year.

Here’s What IKEA Told Kanye West About His Offer to Team Up

IKEA has responded to Kanye West’s recently declared ambition to collaborate with the furniture company.

In response to the rapper’s comments, an IKEA spokesperson told CNBC on Monday that while “flattered by Kanye West’s high interest” they had no intention to “collaborate at this point in time.” But their stance might be changing. IKEA Australia shared a mockup of what their collaboration would look like the day after:

Speaking to BBC Radio One, the rapper said “I have to work with IKEA – make furniture for interior design, for architecture.” He told the show’s host, Annie Mac, that students would love for him to produce “a minimalist apartment inside of a college dorm.”

“Yo IKEA, allow Kanye to create, allow him to make this thing because you know what, I want a bed that he makes, I want a chair that he makes – I want more products from Ye” said West in the third person to the BBC.

This is not the first time West, who has a clothing line Yeezy, has been connected with the Swedish brand. In March he was pictured leaving one of the Swedish stores, he wrote about it on Twitter, saying he was “super inspired’ by the trip.

Ikea Is Recalling 1.7 Million More Dressers in China

Ikea expanded the recall of its problematic Malm dressers to China on Tuesday as the country’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine announced that the Swedish retailer had submitted a recall plan that applies to about 1.7 million products in mainland China.

In late June, Ikea announced the recall of 8 million Malm dressers and 21 million other chests in the U.S. and 6.6 million units in Canada. That notice followed the deaths of three children who were crushed by the dressers over a two-year span. Ikea had introduced a repair program in July 2015 that urged customers to attach Malm units to the wall, but it reexamined its response to the tip-over risk after the third child’s death in February 2016.

The June recall’s limited geographical scope irked regulators in China. The nation’s official Xinhau news agency published an editorial on Sunday that said Ikea’s decision against a more comprehensive recall illustrated the furniture maker’s “arrogance” and irresponsibility. Ikea told Fortune earlier this year that it sold 65 million Malm units worldwide over 13 years. Ikea said last week that it would offer Chinese customers free anchoring kits, but it would not recall the Malm products in China since the units met local standards. Ikea’s recall also didn’t apply to the EU, the company’s biggest market.

In a notice posted Tuesday to its Chinese language site, Ikea reiterated its advice to attach the Malm to the wall, but it also promised a refund to customers who returned the furniture. The company did not immediately return a request for comment on why it changed its stance on recalling the item in China.

Ikea’s approach to its troublesome Malm series has prompted criticism in other arenas too. In April, U.S. safety officials blasted the retailer for its attempt to fix the tip-over problem by telling customers to attach the item to a wall. The “repair” campaign didn’t mention the word “recall,” and representatives from groups like the Consumer Federation of America and the National Center for Health Research said that language choice “reduce[d] the impact” of their efforts to “educate and encourage consumers to recognize the need for action when they hear about a recall.” Safety officials also said the Malm didn’t meet the U.S.’s voluntary industry standards that require each drawer of a dresser to withstand 50 pounds of weight, and that they should stop being sold.

In announcing the recall in North America in June, Ikea said that “taking further action was the right thing to do.”

IKEA Eyes Higher Quality to Fend off New Rivals

Budget furniture giant IKEA is stepping up efforts to improve the quality of its products and to streamline manufacturing to pare costs, aiming to meet changing shopper expectations and take on new competition.

IKEA Group Chief Executive Peter Agnefjall said the push was due to customers increasingly demanding more durable products.

“Customers expect us to do more (on quality). And nowadays you can’t really make products that are throwaway: when you buy a sofa table it needs to be built to last,” he told Reuters.

IKEA, one of the world’s strongest brands, risks losing market share to new online-mainly furniture stores. Online retailers Amazonamzn and Alibaba Group baba and fashion brands Next nxgpy, Zara ztstf and H&M hmrzf are also adding home furnishing to their offerings.

IKEA Group, which owns most IKEA stores, is on track for a 2020 sales target of 50 billion euros ($56 billion). But many associate it with disposable quality and complex self-assembly.

Shedding the image could attract shoppers after they’ve grown older, wealthier and more demanding about quality and durability.

That strategy poses a dilemma, though: how to reach target groups for higher-end ranges without compromising its affordability.

To offer better products while keeping prices low, IKEA now copies the auto industry, developing platforms for five product groups for economies of scale.

Common platforms for many models, which may otherwise range from high-end to budget, have revolutionized the auto sector. At IKEA, it could mean one spring system for sofas and mattresses that is better-quality than existing ones.

One, for wardrobes and drawers, is ready and will be rolled out in large scale in 2017. Purchasing manager Henrik Elm just launched the push, which also includes new materials and easier-assembly innovations, across IKEA’s supply chain.

“We see value for money as one of the most important things to secure growth, and we know this is something which makes our customers sometimes choose not to go to IKEA,” he said.

Multi-year contracts for large volumes is often carrot enough for suppliers to invest in the new machinery required.

“The most important for us is to make our customers more pleased with their products, and then we will surely also reach new customer groups,” Agnefjall said on the quality push.

Chief designer Marcus Engman said IKEA wanted to attract new customers such as older people: “One thing we stretch ourselves to do, is to find customer groups we don’t reach today.”

Aging populations and the fact people move more frequently than before in main market Europe spell opportunities for IKEA – if it succeeds in reintroducing the brand to former customers.

“IKEA is at an interesting crossroads where they have to go back to people who have changed their lifestyle and say ‘we aren’t just the brand you experienced 10-20 years ago, we have other things that might be interesting for you’,” said Kantar Retail’s Ray Gaul.

Because IKEA cherishes its status as the go-to place for people with thin wallets, it may be difficult to market higher ranges.

“The challenge for IKEA is to make people aware of their higher-quality goods whilst at the same time maintaining that democratic appeal,” said Verdict Retail’s Patrick O’Brien, adding IKEA is unlikely to start marketing ranges as premium.

The recall action would be outsize in scale. Ikea told Fortune earlier this year that it’s sold 65 million Malm units worldwide over the past 13 years.

Ikea confirmed the recall to Fortune late Monday. In a statement, spokeswoman Mona Astra Liss said Ikea is announcing the recall given the death of a third child. Ikea had notified customers of Malm’s tip-over risk last year and urged them to attach the dresser to a wall. “It is clear that there are still unsecured products in customers’ homes, and we believe that taking further action is the right thing to do,” Liss said.

Scott Wolfson, spokesperson for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which issues product recalls, said Monday night that he could not confirm the details of the Inquirer story “at the moment.”

The first Malm-related death came in early 2014 when a two-year-old named Curren Collas in West Chester, Penn. died after a six-drawer Malm chest toppled over. Four months later, another toddler, 23-month-old Camden Ellis from Snohomish, Washington, died after a three-drawer version of the Malm fell and trapped him.

For decades, Ikea has included wall restraints with its chests of drawers. “Wall attachment is an integral part of the assembly instructions,” Liss told Fortune in a statement earlier this year. In both toddler deaths, the Malm was freestanding. “We have expressed our sincerest condolences to the families,” the statement said. “We were deeply saddened by what happened, and we hope that our efforts to raise awareness of the risks of tip-over will prevent further tragedies.”

In an effort to stave off more incidents, Ikea, with the CPSC, issued a “repair” notice—technically a type of recall—for the Malm in July 2015, telling customers they must attach the chest to a wall and that they could request a free restraint from the company. Ikea told Fortune in April, that it sent out 300,000 free wall attachment kits to consumers in the U.S. through April 3, 2016. The repair notice covered 27 million units. Ikea continued to sell the Malm series even after the children’s deaths and its own safety warnings.

Screenshot from CPSC’s July 2015 news release

Ikea’s repair bulletin rankled safety officials because it did not actually include the word “recall,” which experts say is an unprecedented occurrence that suggests Ikea had received special treatment. In a letter sent to CPSC chairman Elliot Kaye earlier this year, representatives from the Consumer Federation of America, Kids In Danger, the Consumers Union, and the National Center for Health Research, said they “have worked to educate and encourage consumers to recognize the need for action when they hear about a recall.” Calling it something else, they say, “reduces the impact of all of that hard work on behalf of safety.” The letter also said the Malm didn’t meet the voluntary industry standards that require each drawer of a dresser to withstand 50 pounds of weight and they should stop being sold.

That criticism carried even more weight since in February 2016, a Malm dresser fell on a third child, 22-month-old Theodore McGee in Minnesota, and crushed him to death.

In April, Wolfson of the CPSC said the agency was “looking into” the third tip-over fatality.

Ikea faces two wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of Curren Collas and Camden Ellis that accuse the company of knowingly selling unstable dressers that “presented an unreasonable tip-over hazard.” The lawsuits also claim that Ikea did not include adequate hardware to securely anchor the dresser to many or most wall surfaces.

How IKEA Plans to Help Restaurants Build Their Own Indoor Farms

Swedish home furnishing giant IKEA ikea is known for its simple, affordable furniture that populates dorm rooms and studio apartments across the country. Now, the furniture chain is getting into the sustainable farming industry, one restaurant kitchen at a time.

The company—which has put further emphasis on becoming more environmentally sustainable—recently introduced “The Farm,” a hydroponic garden that would allow them to grow the food served at their stores directly inside the IKEA restaurants. The in-store cafes—known for their Swedish meatballs, cinnamon rolls and lingonberry everything—are just one small slice of the company’s $2 billion-a-year business. However, IKEA is hoping to use The Farm as a model for restaurants everywhere to take a more holistic, home-grown approach to the food supply chain.

For more on retail, watch this Fortune video:

The brand partnered with Space 10, a “future-living lab” and exhibition space in Copenhagen, to develop and unveil the project. According to PSFK, one Space 10 employee compared the state of the environment to a sick human body, saying that the earth needs to time to rest and get healthier in order to recover from its current issues. IKEA is no doubt hoping this DIY farming concept will provide some of that rest for the planet by moving gardens indoors and taking a little stress off the land. The Farm utilizes a variety of IKEA products in its design; The LED lights that power the hydroponic garden are from the store’s Rydda/Vaxer line, and IKEA-brand shelves and plastic bins are used to house the plant life. All said, 80 percent of the supplies used in The Farm’s initial model came from the company.

For now, the company’s design will be utilized only within its own restaurants, but soon chefs, restaurateurs and home cooks across the world could be creating their own on-site sustainable gardens. A sustainably sourced food future could be just an IKEA trip away.